La Tale (Windows)

LA TALE is a massively multiplater online role-playing game (MMORG) set in a fantasy world of sword and sorcery. The player creates a character in the class that best suits their gaming style; Warrior, Knight, Wizard, or Explorer.

La Tale is a side-scrolling game which looks and feels like a "platformer" -- a genre of video games where players have to navigate an environment by getting their characters up onto platforms. The gameplay is controlled mostly with the keyboard and characters will perform the animations of climbing, walking, swinging hand over hand, or swimming as the environment dictates.

Cute and colorful in an anime style, this game is fun to play and easy to get into. Game controls are simple, tooltips are plentiful, and PC requirements low. Character development is not complex, although players would be well advised to read guides that are already out on the various skills and classes. Apart from exploring dungeons and killing monsters with sword or magic to earn gold (known as "Ely"), players will enjoy dressing their characters in a multitude of fashions. They will need to learn a single crafting skill, which is a nice social aspect of the game as crafters are dependent upon each other to produce sub-components or the final item. Another engaging aspect of gameplay are pets. Like players, they get stronger the more they experience, and kids get to watch them grow from egg to baby to adulthood. Pets provide different benefits to the player, depending on the type of pet you have, and they are bought from the item shop using money earned in the game or real money.

In-game mail, the saving of player location via "waypoints" for easier travel, and personal shops are new features recently introduced as well as an in-game marriage where characters can "marry" each other. This requires the mutual selection of a "mate" and "affection points" are earned by both hunting in a group together as well as logging into the game at the same time. Once the affection points fill up the "Proposal" bar, the players can get married and enjoy some in-game benefits, but as in real life, players can also get their characters divorced with related expenses and penalties. Easy to learn but complex enough to be challenging La Tale can be quite a bit of fun.